BRCA1 implicated in neuronal cell death in Alzheimer’s disease

Research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease has suggested that BRCA1 – which plays a major role in genomic stability –may cause neuronal cell death via DNA damage response (DDR) and dysfunction of presenilin 1 (PS1). Upregulated BRCA1 is known to be associated with aberrant DNA damage and dysfunction of PS1, and the new findings support the hypothesis that genotoxic stress via the activation of DDR and destabilization of the cell cycle might lead to molecular neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The researchers obtained data from primary fibroblasts and neurons reprogrammed from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from familial...